It was as the first half entered its final stages that Radamel Falcao was able to breathe a sigh of relief. One of the world's most feared strikers, a man Monaco spent £52.8m on this summer, scored from close range and, at last, could reflect on getting the better of Wes Morgan.

It had become that type of afternoon in the east Midlands, as the bizarre matchup of Leicester against Europe's latest big spenders produced the bizarre sight of a man who, last season, had torn through the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid struggling against a defender who, to put it kindly, is no Gerard Piqué or Sergio Ramos. Up until he struck, it appeared the Colombia superstar was not going to find a way past the former Kidderminster loanee.

They first came together on 10 minutes, when Morgan stepped out of defence to coolly intercept a pass that was heading Falcao's way. Then, a minute later, the 29-year-old rose to head the ball away as Falcao aimed to take it on his chest. Having then failed to convert João Moutinho's left-sided free-kick, the forward saw his shot blocked by Morgan's sliding interception.

By that stage Monaco had taken the lead through left-back Layvin Kurzawa's header, but this was shaping up to become a humiliating afternoon for their star asset. That, however, was until the 38th minute, when Andrea Raggi sent a low cross towards the back post and, after a dummy by Yannick Carrasco that put Leicester's defence, including Morgan, out of kilter, Falcao sidefooted the ball past Kasper Schmeichel.

It would be wrong to take too much from a friendly, even one as eyebrow-raising as this, but there are signs that Falcao's settling-in period in Monaco may take a little longer than his manager Claudio Ranieri, and the club's Russian billionaire owner Dmitry Rybolovlev, would have expected, having beaten the likes of Chelsea to the 27-year-old's signature in May. After all, Falcao came into this game on the back of a wild display in Monaco's 1-0 friendly defeat by German club Augsburg last week and then has had to deal with the odd issue of the Colombian media claiming he lied about his age and is actually 29-years-old.

All that may have led to his subdued display here and the opportunity for Morgan to reflect on how he generally coped well against a striker who scored 34 goals in 41 matches for Atlético Madrid last season. "Falcao is getting better and, in 15 to 20 days' time, he will be 100% ready," Ranieri said. "It is important his new team-mates get to know him and how he plays. But that will happen."

There are certainly encouraging signs for a team who are under pressure to make their mark in Ligue 1 this season, having won the French second division championship, and have spent close to £127m on nine players since. Alongside Falcao, four other arrivals started here in a 4-2-3-1 formation with Moutinho, who arrived at the Stade Louis II for £22m, the pick of the lot. It was the midfielder who dictated the increasingly slick, precise tempo of his team and delivered the corner from which Kurzawa gave the visitors the lead on eight minutes.

Two old heads, Ricardo Carvalho and Eric Abidal, impressed in the centre of defence, while the Moroccan midfielder Mounir Obbadi also shone. Monaco continued to dominate into the second half, even after Ranieri changed his entire lineup on 65 minutes, and scored a third when Marcel Tisserand poked the ball past Schmeichel on 86 minutes.

"I am satisfied with how we played," said Ranieri, after the 3-0 win. "At the moment we are at a base, but step by step we have to improve and arrive at the top of Europe."

The ambition for Leicester is to achieve promotion to the Premier League and, in front of a surprisingly low crowd, their manager, Nigel Pearson, could take heart from how his team performed early on, when the front pairing of Jamie Vardy and Chris Wood caused Danijel Subasic to make good saves. But the day belonged to Europe's newest nouveau riche, if not their most prized of predators.